Scorecard

The 3s found themselves in Edmonton this week to take on a Crouch End side currently 2nd in the league. With our bowling not exactly firing on all cylinders at the moment the leadership decided we would bat first and see if we can and apply scoreboard pressure on what was another sweltering day. Junior called incorrectly but thankfully their skipper was keen to bowl so no damage done. We were waiting on 3 players too so just as well. Shaun was delayed due to an ambulance blocking him in at work and Arkwright decided to get a lift in the pimpmobile! That necessitated a change to the opening combination but luckily we had Robooww around to form the tallest opening partnership with 2 Metre the world has ever seen.

These 2 faced some steady new ball bowling with their big fella (imagine Smithy on steroids!) getting the odd one to move away from the right handlers. The pitch played ok but the ball did not quite come on to the bat as well as you would like and Robbo got a bit impatient and drove one airily to the covers. This brought in Arkwright to join his old mucker and these two started to get the scoreboard ticking. They had put on 56 for the second wicket when Andrew skilfully guided one off the spinner straight to slip. Charlie followed soon after for a well played 42 so Huggy and RJ had the job of rebuilding. Huggy was his usual self, combining nudges for singles and turbo powered bottom handed explosions to the boundary with RJ using Triggers broom to good effect with some fine sweeps. They had seen the score to 139 when a mix up lead to RJ getting run out. However Shahid then came in and kept up the tempo as the oppo started to wilt with limited bowling resources. One of their bowlers managed just 3 balls before a back complaint put an end to his spell. Huggy eventually fell for a splendid 77 and despite a late clatter of wickets we had ensured we had posted a very challenging 233. Shahid played his part with a handy knock of 31.

We gave them 43 overs to get the win or 205 for the winning draw. A real test for Crouch End having fielded in the heat but they had put us in. Nathan and Shaun took the new ball and to be fair to the oppo they showed positive intent. However this did lead to some poor shots and dismissals as wickets fell at regular intervals. One of their openers tried to force a short of a length ball from Nathan but hit it straight to mid off. Their number 3 faced 7 balls. He was dropped first ball when Chaz could not quite hold onto a one handed effort at slip, he then offered a difficult chance to RJ at cover off his 4th before nicking off to the VC off Shaun. Crouch End soon found themselves 73 for 7 and staring down the barrel. A decent partnership then followed but at 120 for 9 when they both were out we had 13 overs to pick up the last wicket and claim the 10 points. Notwithstanding their number 11 was the bowler who could only bowl 3 balls due to a bad back. Surely it was a matter of time.......a couple of chances went down......still plenty of time though......before we know it the overs are ticking by.....various bowlers tried......blimey there is only 1 over left. Come on skipper bring it home! Bad back was on strike and 2nd ball he shuffles across, hits the pad.....owzaaat? Not out says the umpire and that was as close as we got. Full credit to their last 2 batsmen for holding us at bay. One with a bad back and the other bowled 20 overs!

Another close call for the 3s but alas no cigar. Our bowling just lacked consistency at the vital time but we are not far away so don’t rule out a 3rd XI second half of the season charge!

Schlong de la Jour? Well Arkwright deserves a mention in dispatches for thinking he could get to Edmonton on time in the pimpmobile! The skipper did not have his whites on when he could have faced 1 ball at the end of our innings. We declared 9 wickets down after 48.5 overs! However it goes to Charlie for starting to walk after an attempted stumping to be told by umpire Mehaffy he was not out!

Finally I keep getting asked by our female followers, “VC, who is the longest in the shower?”. Well I can reveal it is in fact RJ. Despite his lack of inches he takes an incredible amount of time in there with his Nivea products! He then finishes the job with a anti ageing moisturiser that gives a lovely glow off his skin. For more skin care tips join us next week when I no doubt will be trying to explain away another hard luck story..........